U.S.A. Basketball & The Duality of Kobe

The team on the left is perhaps the greatest basketball team that ever walked (and maybe will ever walk) the earth. I know what your question is, what the hell is Christian Laettner doing there? That's really besides the point. This team was the pinnacle of American basketball. A collection of the best players in the NBA at the greatest possible time. You will be hard pressed to ever find a better group of players in their primes at the same time.

The team was crafted masterfully. You had two of the best distributing point guards in the history of game, Magic Johnson and John Stockton. Four dominant bruisers underneath, the graceful David Robinson combined with the brute strength of Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, and Patrick Ewing. A dominant pure shooter in Chris Mullin combined with the versatile Scottie Pippen and Clyde "The Glide" Drexler made this team solid from top to bottom. Even the addition of a hustle guy (Laettner) showed that this team was engineered to excel in every aspect of the game. Of course this team was topped off with arguably the two best clutch players (and resident killers) in NBA history in the incomparable Larry Bird and Michael Jordan. I give you the Dream Team.

Prior to the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, only amateur athletes were allowed to represent their countries in basketball in the Olympic Games. A ruling by FIBA in 1989 changed all that. The Dream Team steamrolled their opponents by an average margin of 43.8 points without ever calling a timeout. This team could have coached itself. The U.S. followed this up with Olympic wins in 1996 and 2000. It was apparent that the talent level in other countries was increasing and basketball fans saw the margin of victory slowly decrease. The culmination came in the 2000 semifinals against Lithuania when the U.S. narrowly escaped by 2 when Lithuania missed a last second three to take the win.

Team U.S.A.'s slide began in 2002 when a cocky American team finished sixth at the World Championships. The 2004 Olympics in Athens saw the U.S. team lose their first game playing with professionals against an upstart squad from Puerto Rico. They went on to lose twice more en route to a 3rd place showing. A bronze medal showing would be great (and sometimes even heroic) for a lot of countries but it was disastrous to U.S.A. basketball whose aura of dominance was no longer intact. It wasn't just their on-court performance. Off the court, the men's basketball team was seen by many in the U.S. delegation as being full of prima donnas, the players exhibiting a sense of entitlement and a standoffish attitude towards other Olympic athletes.

The international game is different and teams were exposing their weaknesses. They would collapse on players in the paint and force the U.S. to kick it out, exposing their Achilles heal... shooting. Their defense was not ready to guard teams with 4 and sometimes 5 dominant 3-point threats. Teams carved them up by kicking the ball around until they got an open shot, keeping them honest defensively.

Enter the Redeem Team. Team U.S.A. learned its lesson. No longer would they be able to get by on athletic ability alone. They would have to play as a team. Carmelo Anthony, one of the NBA's most polarizing young stars announced that his goal was to break the record for rebounds per game, a far cry from his reputation as a ball hog and cry baby. They added solid role players such as low post player Carlos Boozer, pure shooter Michael Redd, and hustle player Tayshaun Prince. Kobe Bryant, the MVP of the NBA this year took on a role as the defensive stopper which hurt his offensive capabilities but greatly improved the team's chances of winning. Team U.S.A. set itself atop the world once again with a finals victory against Spain. Dominant most of the time, gritty all the time. They made it a point to repair their selfish image, showing up to other Olympic events (swimming, volleyball, etc...) and actively showing support for their fellow Americans.

I'm not going to lie, I did not watch the finals game. I fully intended to stay awake but fell asleep immediately after the 3/4 game ended. I woke up to the sight of Kobe and Dwayne Wade celebrating together while being interviewed by Craig Sager (minus the flamboyant attire). I'm going to preface the following by saying that I've never been a fan of Kobe. In fact, he may be my least favorite athlete (save A-Rod). But for the first time, I think we may have seen the real Kobe. Kobe is the type of person who tries his hardest to make people think he's somebody he's not, trying to hide what he really is, selfish player, poor teammate, incredible athlete, crunch time killer... What I saw was a jubilant person, somebody who was truly proud of his team and what his teammates had accomplished.

After the interview, him and Wade locked in a giant embrace that could not have been fabricated. Everybody who has ever reached the pinnacle of their sport knows what it feels like. The feeling of having run the gamut of emotions with somebody (or a group of people) in order to achieve a singular goal. In this case, an Olympic medal. Maybe it's just the medal that does this to people. Maybe it's the weight of an entire nation being released from your collective shoulders. In either case, watching Kobe celebrate like a human really touched me. It takes a lot for me to say this but I hope that this was a turning point for Kobe because he works too hard to be the player he is, to be reviled by so many for his machine-like approach towards people. Teammates, opponents, fans, coaches, media... A player of his caliber affects them all whether he chooses to accept it or not.